Apparatus for treating articles of work



July 11, 1933. H, ROSENBERG 1,918,136

APPARATUS FOR TREATING ARTICLES OF WORK Filed- Se t. 17, 1931 5 Sheets-Sheet 1- HEYMANFQUEENBERB July 11, 1933. H. ROSENBERG APPARATUS FOR TREATING ARTICLES OF WORK Filed Sept. 17, 1931 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 o gwlwntoz; HEYMAN RUEENBEEIL,

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July 11, 1933. H. ROSENBERG 36 APPARATUS FOR TREATING ARTICLES OF WORK Filed Sept. 17, 1931 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIB-EI- Patented July 11, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE APPARATUS FOR TREATING ARTICLES OF WORK Application filed September 17, 1931.

This invention relates to improvements in the art of work handling and treating processes and apparatus of the type set forth in my co-pending application Serial No. 558,- 413, filed April 20, 1931, since patented June 6th, 1933, Patent No. 1,913,090, and has as its essential object the efficacious and expeditious as well as inexpensive handling and treating of work particularly in conjunction with heat treatment processes.

A further object is the grouping of work in a manner to assure treatment of a maximum quantity of work in a minimum area.

To this end, it is a further and more detailed object to handle the work as a cntinuous process, introducing work at one point, transferring Work at another point, and removing the completed work at still another oint.

With these and further objects in view as will in part hereinafter become apparent and in part be stated, the invention includes the step by step movement of work while being treated and the replacing and removal of work between steps.

The invention also includes apparatus for moving work along a path while being treated and removing the work from such path to a place of further treatment.

The invention still further contemplates the provision of means for mechanically transferring the work in moving it from one "place of treatment to another.

The invention still further comprises certain other novel constructions, combinations, and arrangements of parts as will hereinafter be more fully set forth and be subsequently specifically pointed out in the ap pended claims.

In the accompanying drawings,-

Figure 1- is a somewhat diagrammatic, sectional elevation of an apparatus embodying the features of the present invention and well adapted for the carrying out of the art.

Figure 2 is a horizontal section therethrough taken on the plane indicated by line 22 of Figure 1, and looking downward, parts being seen in plan and somewhat diagrammatically.

Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are enlarged,

Serial No. 563,426.

detailed, side elevations of a pair of transfer hooks with cooperating parts illustrating the successive steps in picking up, transferring, and depositing the work holders.

Referring to the drawings by numerals, 1

indicates any appropriate furnace and 2 a quenching vat, the furnace and vat being preferably provided with upstanding housings or enclosing hoods, not shown in the drawings, but extending sufliciently above the furnace and vat to accommodate the operations therein, after the manner of the housing disclosed in my co-pending application Serial No. 448,349, filed April 29, v1930. It should, of course, be understood that such hoods or housings are for the protection of the Workmen, to ventpoisonous gases, and other escaping fumes and heat. .Doorways are, of course, provided in such housings to enable requisite access, and particularly provided to accommodate the movements of the-loading and discharging arms hereinafter described, and such doorways are preferably closed by doors opened and otherwise moved relative to the movement of those arms by linkage connections or like actuators synchronized with the movements of the arms, after the manner seen in the actuation of the housing door operated by linkage from the discharge basket of my last above-mentioned coepend ing application. Also, it will be understood that the quenching fluid in vat-2 may be water or oil, or any other appropriate quenching fluid, and will be preferably maintained at a relatively low temperature by means of appropriate cooling circulation, after the man ner set forth in my co-pending application Serial No. 461,763, filed June 17, 1930.

An upright or standard 3 is mounted to resist'lateral or tilting dislocation and upstands alongside the furnace 1, preferably opposite, that is across the furnace from, the vat 2. An arm 4 outstands laterally. from the upper portion of standard 3 to overhang the furnace 1, and is provided With a terminal sleeve 5 at its free end, preferably substantially located in the line of the vertical axis of the furnace 1. A vertical shaft 6 extends through sleeve 5 and is provided-With a fixed collar 7 having an end or thrust bearing on ably detachably, to the work holders 15.

extending respectively across to and down through the standard 3 and laterally out from the same, the shaft 10 being driven from any appropriate source of power, such, for example, as an alternating current motor or other means designed to insure synchronisnr of motion of the parts to be actuated by shaft 6with the motion of other parts hereinafter described.

Fixed to and outstanding radially from the lower end portion of shaft 6 immediately above the furnace 1 are work holder ipports '13, 13, which may be in the form of forks as one convenient type of construction, but which essentially include spaced supporting walls or plates each notched at 11 with an outward bevel for cumming a workholder as hereinafterdescribed.

\Vork holders 15, 15 are provided, each consisting of any appropriate form, of bracket apparatus having the work holder cross rod 16 at its upper portion engaging the beveledface notches 14 of'the two sides of a support 13L Each work holder 15 is adapted to detachably sustain pendent rods 15, 15 on which the work 17 is appropriately detachablymounted. The rods 15 may be more boltswith nuts or heads at their lower ends and eyes or hooks at their upper ends, which eyes or hooks overhang and thus engage and are supported by the work holders 15. The work 17 may be perforated discs, gear wheels. washers, or other annular or other shaped perforated bodies,.or the work may be otherwise shaped and otherwise connected, prefer- A standard 18 similar-in construction. and arrangement to standard 3 upstands alongside or from the vat 2 preferably at the opposite side of the vat from the location of the furnace 1, and shaft-ing 19, 20, and 21 delivers power to a pendent shaft 22, which is similar in all'rcspects to the shaft 6, and is synchronized in its movement therewith either by the employment of an alternating current motor for driving shaft 19, which is synchronized with the alternating current motor driving shaft 10, or the said shafts 19 and 10 may be hooked up to a common source'of power geared to insure proper synchronism in themotion of shaft 6 with respect to the motion of shaft 22. Each of shafts' lO and 19 is, of course, driven by a step-by-step advance device proportioned to the requisite stepping of the respective work supports, an appropriate form and detailed construction of step-by-step device for each of said shafts lOand 19 being such as that seen in Figure 3 of my co-pending application Serial No. 580,158, filed December 10, 19.31.

Fixed to and outstanding radially from the lower portion of shaft'22 are the supports having the camming and work-holder-receiving recesses 2%, the parts 23 being either in the form of forks or otherwise similar to the parts 13 to correspondingly cooperate with the work holders.

The supports 13 are located in that relation to the furnace 1 to enable the work 17 to be suspended substantially within the enclosure of the furnace from above, the upper or cover plate of the furnace being formed with an enlarged opening into which extends the pot Pot 25 may be supported in place in any appropriate manner, but prefe ably by the usual peripheral. flange 26 overhanging a portion of the top of the furnace 1 and effectively sealing the top against the escape of fumes or heat. It should be understood that the present invention contemplates any of a variety of treatments of work, more particularly heat treatments, and one of such t eatments will serve to effectively illustrate the advantag of the present invention. For purpose of illustration, therefore, it is stated that cyanide case-hardening may be very effectively carried out rapidly and economically, and in a most compact space-by the present improved apparatus, and when cyanide case-hardening is being practiced, the pot -5 will be supplied with the required salt which will be, during operation, maintained molten and at the required temperature for effective carbon penetration of the work being treated. i

The supports 23 lie immediately above the vat 2 in position for allowing the work 17 to be suspended in the quenching fluid for providing the desired reaction after the cyanide treatment, assuming a case-hardening process to be illustratively in progress.

The furnace 1 and vat 2 may be connected together by any appropriate framework and provided with any desired partitions or cover plates, such as plates 27 and 28, and a rock shaft 29 is preferably journaled to oscillate in appropriate bearings 80, 30,carried by the plate 28. or by the plates 2'? and 28, according to preference. Fixed toethe rock shaft 30 is an operating lever arm 31, which is constructed to function similarly to the work transfer lever arms 19 and 21 of my above-mentioned 'co-pending application Serial No. 558,413. The arms offthc said copending application are shown in pairs, so thatthe. work swings between them; whereas in the instant disclosure a single arm is employed and the work is adapted to swing alongside, but, of coure, it is well within the intent and purpose of the present invention thata pair of'arms may be employed after the manner taught in the said co-pending ap plication when and if preferred. Extending laterally from the free end of arm 31, and preferably rigidly carried thereby, is a pin 32 on which is pivotally mounted preferably a pair (seen in top plan in Fig 2) of hooks 33, each having acounterbalance weight and constructed and adapted to operate as set forth in detail in my last abovementioned co-pending application. The pair of hooks are connected to function as a unitand may be considered a single hook except that they accommodate between them the pendent bar of the bracket making up the work holder 15 and which extends downward from the work holder cross rod 16.

The axis of rotation of rock shaft 29 and the length of arm 31 to the axis of rotation of the hooks 33, which are swivelled to swing freely on pin 32, is such as to cause the hooks to have the requisite relationship to the cross bars 16 to produce effective operation of the hooks in picking up the bars from supports 13 and discharging the bars on to supports the arm 31 is swung from the position overhanging pot to the position overhanging vat 2. To effect such swinging movement of arm 31, the shaft 29 is driven by an electric motor or other appropriate source of power 35, controlled by an automatic reversing switch 36, or other leverage apparatus for causing the shaft 29 to oscillate through the required angle for moving the arms 31 back and forth between its extreme positions over the pot 25 and over the vat 2. The shaft 29 extends beyond the bearing at one side and into a housing 37 provided with appropriate gearing, not illustrated, but such as is shown in my copending application filed September 11, 1931, Serial No. 562,394, which connects with a stub shaft 38 carrying a hand-operating lever 39 for enabling emergency, manual actuation of the shaft 29.

The hooks are caused to pick up and let go of the work after the manner set forth and claimed in my co-pending application Serial No. 553,413, but may be briefly stated as illustrated in detail in Figures 3 to 9 of the drawings as follows: Lever 31 moves downward toward the cross bar 16, as seen in Figure 3, while the cross barflis supported by parts 13 over pot 25 until the camming surface 43 at the front of the bite of the hooks strikes the bar, as seen in Figure 4, and causes the hook to ride backward, that is in the. direction toward shaft 29, past the bar. Since the hooks sus icnded to hang normally as seen in Figure 3, the movement during this camming action is away from the normal, gravity-sustained position of the hooks, and as soon as the shank of the hook passes bar 16 in moving downward, the hook will drop into line below the bar 16, and the first slight upward movement of lever 31 will cause the hooks to move to the positionseen in Figure 6, while the work swings alongside lever arm 31 and finally assumes a pendent position above the work supports 23. The further vertical movement of arm 31 causes the work to be lowered between the pair of supports or fork 23 until the bar 16 strikes the camming surface 24 of the respective supports 23, as seen in Figure 7. The weight of the work holder 15 and of the work 17 causes the bar 16 to slide down the camming surface and thus swing the hooks 33 out of balance to the position seen in Figure 8. The arm 31 then moves a little lower down, and the hooks 33 swing by gravity to a position laterally of bar 16, as seen in Figure 9. The arm 31 is then free to'swing back to its load-receiving position.

Thus, with the swinging of the arm 31 back and forth between its extreme positions respectively above pot 25 and above vat 2,

successive work holders will be lifted from the pot and delivered to the quenching vat, and it should be understood that during operation the shafts 6 and 22 will be revolved with a step by step motion to advance a fork or pair of supports 13 one step after a work holder has left and freed itself from the line of travel of the supports 13, so that, when the hooks 33 return, a new work holder will be in line to be engaged, and likewise the shaft 22 will be advanced with a step by step movement timed and synchronized to present an empty pair of work supports or fork 23 with the approaching of the new work holder and work suspended from hooks 33.

Of course, as the work is being continuously removed fromthe supports 13 and continuously supplied to the supports 23, the quenched work 17 in vat 2 must be removed successively from the forks or supports 23 and new work must be successively supplied to forks or supports 13, and this may be done manually, if desired, but it is preferable to deliver work to the supports 13 mechanically and to remove work from supports 23 mechanically both as time, cost, and material saving, and as a means of avoidance of exposure of operators to possible injuries from fumes in the plant.

To the end of providing for mechanical work feeding and work removal, shafts 41 and 42 are ournaled in appropriate bracket bearings, or other appropriate supports, carried by the plates 27 and 28, or other framing of the plant, and the shafts 41 and 42 are drivcn from any appropriate source of power synchronized to cooperate with the action of shaft 29. To this end, the shaft 29 may, as seen in Figure 2, be extended beyond its geared connection with its motor and geared to the shafts 41 and 42 in a manner to actuate the latter shafts in opposite directions at the same time. In other words when shaft ell is rocking clockwise, shaft 42 will be rocking counter-clockwise. Shaft a2 is provided with a feeding arm 40 carrying a pair of hooks l4 identical in construction and mounting with hooks 33, except that the spacing of the axis of rotation of shaft 12 relative to the pivotal axis of hooks la is such with respect to the recesses ll of supports 13 as to be the same as the relation of the hooks 33 wit-h respect to the recesses 24: of supports 23. In other words, the spacing is such that the hooks slat perform their let-go operation relative to the supports 13, just as the hooks 33 perform their let-ge operation relative to the supports as seen in Figures 7, 8, and 9. Likewise, the shaft ll carries a discharge arm 45 supporting a pair of pickup and let-go hooks sit; similar in construction and operation with the hooks 33, except that the spacing is such that the hooks 41:6 pick up the rods 16 and work holders from the supports just as hooks 33 pick up the rods from the work holders 13, and, of course, the let go of the hooks ll) is accomplished outside of the plant or the work may be manually removed, if preferred. Likewise work may be manually supplied or mechanically supplied. to the hooks ll in their take-up action at the outer extremity of their stroke when they are preparing to bring in a new work holder to the new set of supports 13.

Thus, the arms 31, t0, and 45 and their respective work-carrying hooks and the shafts 6 and 22 all effectively synchronized to cooperate, and are so coordinated that a work holder is delivered to a pair of supports 13 during the cessation of, rotation of shaft 6 between each two steps thereof, and a work holder is similarly removed from a pair of the work supports 23 during each cessation between the steps of the shaft 22, and during the same period the hooks transport a work holder from the supports 13 to the supports Naturally, the work-feeding and dis charging arms maybe located at any preferred point, but it is desirable to allow the work to be exposed to the cyanide action for asul'istantial time where a cyanide process is being carried out, and while it is not necessary usually to retain the work any appreciable time in the quenching vat 2, the presence of the work therein will do no harm, and as a matter of convenience of assemblage, the work-fecding, and work-removing arms l0 and 45 are, therefore, preferably located at the same side of the plant, but may be otherwise located as desired.

13y actual comparative tests, the present invention is capable of handling an enormous quantity of work in an extremely compact space. For example, when cyanide treating metal work for case-hardening purposes, I

can treat more work in a plant incorporating the present invention in any given time than can be treated with the continuous conveyor type tank of far greater size. By way of illustration, a plant embodying the present invention and having a cyanide pot, such as pot 25, which is only fifty inches in diameter and eighteen inches deep will handle a very substantially greater amount of work in any given time than can be handled in a continuous conveyor tank type which is fourteen feet long. Of course, it will be understood that factory space is of value and frequently of great value.

It will be understood from the foregoing, of course, that the standard 18 is provided with the lateral arm 47 and sleeve 48 corresponding to arm -.t and sleeve 5, and that the shaft 22 is journaled in the sleeve 48 and supported thereon by the thrust-bearing stop collar 49 similarly to the supporting of shaft 6 by collar 7.

\Vhat is claimed is 1. In apparatus for treating articles of work, the combination of a pot, work supporting and moving means for moving work in a continuously advancing direction with a step-by-step movement in a circular path within the pot, and means for removing work from the pot while leaving the work supporting and moving means in position to support newly supplied work in the pot.

In apparatus for treating; articles of work, the combination of a pot, work supporting and moving means for moving work in a continuously advancingdirection with a step-by-step movement in the pot, a cooperating vat, work supporting and moving means for moving work in a continuously advancing direction with a step-by-step movement in the vat timed to coordinate with the stepby-step movement of the work in the pot, and means for transferring work from the work supporting and moving means of the pot to the work supporting and moving means of the vat in the interim between stcpsand while leaving both of said work supporting and moving means in operative work supporting position.

In apparatus for treating articles of work, the combination, with a pot, of sustaining means disposed above the pot, work supporting and movin means movably supported by said sustaining means and outstanding to overlie the pot, the said work supporting and moving means having caniminp; surfaces, and pick-up and let-go means for moving work carriers to and from ongagement with said work supporting' and moving means in position for enabling the camming' means to gravity locate the Work carriers relative to such pick-up and let go means. 7

4. In apparatus for treating; articles of moving means of another of said treatment means, and for transferring Work similarly successively from the last-mentioned Work supporting and moving means, all While leaving all of said Work supporting and moving means in the proper relation to the treatment means for supporting Work being or to be treated.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

HEYMAN ROSENBERG. 

